


The Lay of Igor’s Raid

by a_facade



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Rating May Change, Slow Burn, future smut, possibly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 05:31:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15767598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_facade/pseuds/a_facade
Summary: Veles officially works for The Avengers facility in an operations capacity. Unofficially, however...A story of how a woman with a mysterious background meets the trickster god.(Honestly, I wanted to see a version of this story with an extremely capable woman who would intimidate Loki, instead of the other way around.)Slight AU—there is time between Thor: Ragnarok and Infinity War. Thor, Loki, and others make it back to Earth before Thanos can obtain any stones, though they do run into the Guardians of the Galaxy before arriving. Also, Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel is involved, because she should have been long ago.Tags and rating updated as necessary.





	1. Chapter One

Veles blinks in the darkness, eyes trying to adjust. She turns to her left to grab the traitorous device, which is currently blaring her ringtone. A quick glance at the screen blinds her and she recoils, using muscle memory to answer the call.

“Veles,” she mumbles into the phone. A glance at the clock tells her that it’s nearly 3:30 in the morning, and she tries to hide a sigh.  _ Oh, for f— _

“Hi, Sunshine.”

She pauses. It’s Tony, and he sounds chipper as usual. No one should, this early in the morning, but he somehow always musters a smile. Still, something is off.

“Hello, Stark. Always lovely to hear from you at 3:30 in the morning.”

He ignores her snark, as usual. “I need you to come in. Just got a message from Thor. It was short, but something happened. Asgard’s gone, we’ve got a  _ whole _ lot of people to find housing for, he’s bringing Loki, apparently we have a message from some spacefaring friends, oh—and our big green friend is with him” he rattles. Tony never sounds like he stops to breathe. It’d be endearing, if it didn’t make everyone worry about him.  _ Spacefaring friends, though. That’s interesting. _

“Now?” sighs Veles. She knows the answer before she hears it.

“I just  _ desperately _ wanted to hear your voice,” says the deadpanned, sarcastic tone on the other line.  _ That _ sounds more like him.

“Careful, or I’ll have to tell Pepper on you,” she smirks, earning her a snort. She groans and drags herself into a sitting position. “Alright. See you soon.”

“Bye, Sunshine.”

Veles leans her head back on the wall behind her with a thud, closing her eyes. Absent-mindedly, she twists her fingers towards the overhead light and it turns on. 

 

It’s still dark when Veles walks into the Avengers facility. Waiting for her computer to boot up, she drops a small purse at her desk—black with gold hardware. It makes a louder thud than it should for something that small, and she winces. With no one here this early, the sound reverberates through the room. Veles looks to the computer screen.

“Good morning, FRIDAY.”

A smooth voice flows out of the machine. “Hello, Veles. Welcome back.”

“I don’t suppose you know where Tony is?”

“He is upstairs, in the lab.”

“Perfect. Time to sleep, darling,” Veles says softly. The computer screen goes black, and she spins around in her chair and stands up, smoothing down her skirt in the process. She hates wearing pencil skirts. They’re always riding up, but they look sharp. Sharp is her thing.

Upstairs, she swoops through the kitchen. No one is around, so she gives a quick wave at the coffee pot and it starts to brew. While she waits, she heads to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, she eyes her outfit. Black pencil skirt, deep forest green silk blouse. Simple gold jewelry—silver has never worked with her skin. Black leather wrap watch, black leather heels. Overall, she thinks she looks pretty good for—what time is it? 5:30 am?

She didn’t have time to do her makeup before heading in. Veles could always use her magic to do it, but she prefers to do it herself. It’s a ritual, like a daily warpaint. Calming, even. Not today, though. She sighs to herself, almost sadly, and after the next blink her face is made up. Always one for dramatics, her eyes are lined with a sharp cateye framed by perfect eyebrows. 

Returning to the kitchen, she produces a mug in her hand and pours herself a cup of coffee. She barely returns the pot to the warmer as her heels click out the door and down the hallway to the lab. Taking a sip, she enters as FRIDAY announces her arrival. 

 

“Sunshine!” exclaims Tony. He turns towards her, arms open, pretending that being at the facility at 5:30 in the morning is under happier circumstances. She lifts an eyebrow at him and hides a smirk with her coffee. That smirk turns into a genuine smile when she sees the woman sitting to Tony’s right.

“Carol!” Veles purrs and moves toward the blonde, leaning in to kiss each cheek. Carol Danvers is a rare sight around the facility. She usually only works with Nick, but Veles has met her a few times and loved her company. She’s one of the few who can dish out sass as well as she can take it, which has endeared her to Veles. 

Unfortunately, though, Carol’s involvement usually spells bad news. Veles doesn’t know the full extent of her work, but she knows she’s involved in SWORD, which would explain why she’s here today.  _ Probably something to do with our ‘spacefaring friends.’ _

“What, pray tell, has woken me up at 3:30 in the morning?” asks Veles. She turns up a corner of her mouth, offering a small smile to show she wasn’t  _ really _ mad.

“Quite a bit, actually…” sighs Carol.

 

No one is certain what the extent of the situation is, but Veles gathers that it’s not good.  _ Something _ happened on Asgard, causing a mass evacuation of refugees—all being shepherded to Earth by Thor… and Loki. The very same Loki that was imprisoned for trying to destroy the planet. The god was presumed dead after breaking free of his imprisonment in Asgard. Clearly that was a ruse, too.  _ Interesting _ , she couldn’t stop herself from thinking.  _ Nice trick. _

Thor also said he had a message from Nova Core.  _ Risky. Only a few people on this planet know about them. _ Some envoys—The Guardians of the Galaxy—are heading to Earth with an important message.  _ What a name, _ she laughs internally.  _ So pretentious _ . Carol knows them, has worked with them before. 

“I presume you need me to secure housing for the Asgardian refugees, and…” Veles lets the question hang in the air. There are others who can find somewhere for the Asgardians to live. She was called for more.

“And to keep an eye on Loki,” responds Carol.

“ _ And _ to keep an eye on these other jokers,” says Tony, referring to the Guardians, before turning to wave at a computer screen, doing who-knows-what.

“They’re not that bad, I promise,” Carol whispers under her breath before getting up.

“So, the usual 15 jobs at once. Got it.”

“Yep. Thanks Sunshine!” Tony is straight to the point, as usual.

Veles turns to leave, but is stopped short. “Oh—and, keep it… you know. Quiet.”

He doesn’t have to tell her twice. Tony and Carol are the only two who really know what she’s capable of. After what Loki did to New York City, she definitely doesn’t want anyone else to know.

 

Back at her desk, Veles works on finding a place for the Asgardians to stay. She’s asked FRIDAY to run some reports on unused rooms and all barracks in the facility. There’s probably room for them all if they bunk up, and luckily it will only be temporary, but she doesn’t actually know how many are arriving. No matter—she can talk them out of seeing themselves as sardines in a can (not that they’d understand the reference) if it’s a problem.

She’s hard at work, humming along to music drifting through her headphones, when FRIDAY lets her know that Thor (and guests) have arrived. Keeping her headphones in, she struts towards the landing pad, swaying a little to her music.

  
  



	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short Loki chapter, with a small Veles/Thor convo at the end. Still finding his voice (apologies!), but most of this chapter just didn’t make sense from Veles’ point of view.

Loki is bored.

Even he’s not sure how he could be bored after everything they just went through, but somehow, he is. He’s bored listening to Stark drone on. He’s bored watching the confused faces on his people. He’s especially bored of the dull comments from the Kronan, though thankfully that  _ thing _ prefers to talk to his brother.

He knows he has extremely limited favor here, however, so he keeps his mouth shut, hands clasped behind his back, smiling a perfectly pleasant smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. In fact, he thinks his eyes are probably glazed over at this point, but he doesn’t bother to hide it. He glances dully from face to face in the crowd, (im)patiently waiting for whatever happens next, when suddenly—

It’s a woman, and he’s sure she looks as bored as he does. She’s tall, dark brown hair, nicely dressed—certainly attractive. Her sharp features are arranged into a look clearly intended to placate those around her. He watches her as she stops moving and leans back against a wall, fingers and a foot tapping along to a rhythm in her own head. 

At some point he notices that Stark has finished blabbing. Thor is addressing his people now, and he watches as Stark walk over to the mystery woman and whisper something in her ear. She smirks but doesn’t look away from the crowd.  _ Interesting, _ he muses. She’s important enough to know Stark, and they clearly know each other well. Not many people would risk smirking at him, of all people, in the Avengers complex. 

The crowd is starting to disperse, and he knows he should follow Thor. It’s doubtful he’s allowed free reign of the entire complex (and he needs to know the rules so he knows how to break them later). Still, he makes a move to follow the woman out as she leaves. As she steps away from the wall, she notices Loki’s gaze. She meets his eyes and raises an eyebrow at him.  _ She’s not wary of me, _ which causes him to pause.  _ Strange _ . He narrows his eyes and smirks at her, which earns him an eyeroll and she turns to leave, passing behind a pillar. He laughs quietly as he strides closer to her, but suddenly he can’t see her. There are a lot of people here, but that still seems strange to him. How did he lose her? 

He maintains his composure and moves to trail behind Thor, Bruce, and Stark, though makes no effort to quite catch up. He finds Stark annoying, and he’s certain the feeling is mutual. 

“Planning on being a good boy today?” asks a voice from just behind him.

Loki doesn’t let it show, but this strange woman caught him off guard. Irritating. 

“Mmm,” he pretends to mull it over, giving a sideways glance at the woman who is now on his right. “For now.”

“Good answer.”

“Glad I picked the right one,” he says. She clearly seems to intend to keep pace with him, so he asks “And you are?”

“Veles.” She doesn’t offer anything else.

“Ah.” He lifts his eyebrows, but keeps walking. “Unique.”

She barks out a laugh. “It’s old. Family tradition, I suppose.” Her slight accent is almost recognizable as eastern European, and he vaguely wonders if she was part of the same program Natalia was. “You’re coming this way,” she states, interrupting his thought. 

He must have had a confused look on his face, because she laughed. “You’re certainly not going to debrief with the rest of the Avengers. I’ll show you where you can go, and where you are staying.”

Loki almost rolled his eyes, but he knows she’s right. He couldn’t expect to go with them. He may be back in Thor’s favor, but he’s not looked at fondly on this planet, and hey, at least this irritating woman—Veles—is more intriguing than other Midgardians, so he follows. 

She gives a detailed but precise tour of the spaces available to him, and she’s entirely professional the entire time. It has him a little on edge that she doesn’t seem to be afraid of him (oh, the irony), but he does notice that she maintains a small amount of distance from him at all times. Maybe he was mistaken. Maybe she’s boring, too.

“I know this room probably is not what you’re used to, but at least it’s private, and has a view. Can’t have a prince in the barracks.” Veles’ voice interrupts his thoughts, but he doesn’t miss her sarcasm—nor her smirk. She winks and steps out the door, leaving him alone in his assigned room. 

Loki smiles to himself, and the thought occurs to him to ask her why someone who knows Stark is relegated to giving an almost-prisoner a tour of the complex. He turns and steps out the door, but even though it can’t have been more than 5 seconds, she’s gone.

_ Well that’s… odd _ , he thinks. Maybe she’s not boring after all.

 

* * *

 

Veles meets up with Stark, Bruce, and Thor as their conversation is ending. To be honest, Bruce looks a little overwhelmed. She feels a twinge of pity for him and she gets the feeling that Tony does too, because he asks Bruce to follow him to his lab. Talking about whatever science-y stuff they talk about is probably a relief for him—she knows it can be relaxing and disarming to feel needed. Thor has moved to a counter, leaning over it with a beer and watching her.

She always liked Thor. He reminded her of her brother, Perun. She has a soft spot for her brother, though they haven’t spoken in ages. Come to think of it, she hasn’t spoken to Thor in what feels like ages, either.

Veles moves quietly towards the imposing man ( _ bull in a china shop,  _ she thinks) and takes a seat across from him. “I’m sorry about Asgard,” she offers. She’s usually very good at talking to others, but Thor has the same quality about him as Perun—some kind of deep and protective fury that she knows she shouldn’t poke at. “And your sister,” she adds.

Thor looks at her sadly, but forces a smile. “We saved more than I thought we could.”

A change of subject was clearly needed. “Who was that delicious woman who arrived with you?” she asked. “She doesn’t look like the rest of your people.”

Thor’s eyes light up a little as he explains about the Valkyries and his final battle with Hela alongside Brunnhilde and Loki. It’s adorable, almost; he has such admiration for the Valkyries, and especially her. It’d be easy to assume he had a crush, but Veles thinks that he has a crush on the idea of a Valkyrie rather than Brunnhilde herself. He also plainly states that he isn’t sure how she tastes, and she can’t help but giggle. For all his time spent on Earth when he was exiled from Asgard, he still has a ways to go with idioms.

“Well, maybe I’ll have to find out,” Veles says with a wink. Thor gives her a very confused look and she laughs, stealing a sip of his beer. Honestly, he’s too easy to screw with.

 

* * *

 

Loki watches Veles chat with Thor from behind the doorway to the rec room, and if he didn’t know better he’d say she was flirting with him. Something about her body language seems to deny this, though. He senses she’s toying with him simply to take his mind off of things.

 

Still, he sees a closeness there that makes him curious. She knows Stark and can speak candidly with Thor. She’s clearly important, but who is she?

  
  



	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adding in another chapter today to get story flowing.
> 
> The Guardians Arrive! As a reminder, Carol knows the Guardians in this AU.

 

“Veles, Tony and Carol have finished their debrief with the Guardians. Your presence is requested in the main conference room,” chimes FRIDAY gently over Veles’ headphones.

“Tell them I’ll be up shortly, darling.” The thought crosses Veles’ mind that FRIDAY sounds a bit like the lovely AI from the Mass Effect games, and she briefly wonders what FRIDAY would look like if she were to inhabit a human body, too. She may also have briefly debated whether or not FRIDAY would have used her massive processing power and knowledge to put that body to good use, but she would have vehemently denied it if asked. She also doesn’t really want to give Tony any ideas for new AI, not after Ultron.

“Yes, Veles.”

 

* * *

 

 

Carol and Tony are waiting for her.

“Hello?” she questions, lightly knocking on the doorframe of the conference room.

Carol sighs. “It’s worse than we thought, Veles.” 

She steps through the threshold and takes a seat next to Carol, eyeing Tony with a raised eyebrow.

“She ain’t kiddin’, Sunshine.”

Carol looks to Veles. “You remember...” she trails off before trying again, eyes lowered. “It—it’s Thanos.”

“That’s certainly a face one doesn’t forget,” Veles answers.  _ Shit. Shit, shit shit, _ she curses to herself in just about every language she knows. “No news about that purple pompous jerk with a huge chin is good news.” She also knows this is doubly true for Carol, after what he did to her, and has to suppress a shudder. Carol never confided in Veles about the torture she endured some 20 years ago, but she had also never asked how Veles knew him. She suspected they’d both been through some terrible things, but Veles’ pain was much older. Less fresh.

“Well, ugly purple guy or not, I’m pretty sure he’s trying to bring around the doomsday I’ve been having nightmares about for years,” Tony cuts in, clearly trying to interject a bit of humor and sensing the discomfort. “It sounds like he’s looking for that Allspark-thing my dad found, and, frankly? I don’t want to know what he wants to do with it.”

“The Tesseract? I thought that was being protected by Asgard,” asks Veles. “So, I assume it wasn’t destroyed along with the planet?”

“Something that powerful… I don’t know. Maybe not,” admits Carol.

“Most certainly not,” a voice purrs from behind.  _ Loki _ . She’s irritated that he seems to have snuck up on her, this time.

“I have to agree with my brother. It’s unlikely that it was lost in the destruction of our planet.” Thor’s loud voice cuts into the room.

Loki quietly moves to take a seat next to Veles. Thor sits across from him and props his boots on the conference table, earning him a dirty look from Tony that he is too clueless to note.

Tony looks as if he is trying to hide the snarl he involuntarily produces when looking at Loki. “Yeah, you would know, wouldn’t you Dracula?”

Loki snorts. “Stark—”

Veles cuts him off with a laugh. “Hush,  _ Upyr. _ I suspect we have larger things to worry about.” It’s Loki’s turn to snarl.

“I assume you know of Thanos?” asks Carol.

Thor launches into a diatribe, explaining Thanos’ involvement in brainwashing Loki, but Veles notices all expression has immediately wiped off of Loki’s face. He’s still, with a practiced look of absolutely nothing painted across his features.  _ He’s terrified. _

“And you believe this guy? The lord of lies?” Tony asks, incredulous. 

“It  _ is _ Thanos’ M.O…” says Carol. “I don’t really have a reason  _ not _ to believe him”  _ Neither do I, _ Veles thinks. She’s good at reading people. Even gods. “We could talk to Gamora.”

Carol catches Veles’ eyes and though she doesn’t hold them long, it’s a significant enough look that Veles knows what she needs to do. A projection of herself appears just out of the doorway, nearly out of sight of everyone but Carol, and whisks away down the hall.

Loki tilts his head slightly toward the door, as if expecting someone else to walk in. When no one does, he looks a bit uncomfortable.

“Good idea,” Veles cuts in. “I’ll arrange some time.”

“Thanks, Sunshine,” chimes Tony, chipper as ever—but you can tell he’s burying his real emotions in a repeat performance of yesterday morning’s phone call. He gets up to leave and Carol and Thor move to follow. 

 

Loki stands as well, but pauses and looks back at Veles. “What,  _ exactly, _ do you do here?”

“Operational logistics,” she replies simply. 

“And… you know about Thanos?”

“Hmm,” she agrees. “I help Tony with a lot of things.”

“And yet you were relegated to playing tour guide yesterday.”

“ _ Ja. _ You are a rather important guest, are you not?”

Loki smirks. “I’m quite sure you’re the only one who thinks so.”

Veles laughs. “See you around, Loki.”

 

* * *

 

 

_ Meanwhile… _

 

“FRIDAY, where are our lovely Guardian visitors?” Veles inquires at the nearest intercom.

“They are located in the recreation room two floors above.”

Veles steps into the stairwell, but doesn’t bother walking up and instead opts to appear behind the hallway door above. She strides down the hall toward their guests, and pauses in the doorway. She laughs—nothing could have prepared her for the circus in front of her, despite Carol’s descriptions.

“I am  _ Groot _ ,” the tree snarks at her appearance, alerting the raccoon next to him.

“Well, well, aren’t you cute, little one.” She’s certainly not going to let this ‘Groot’ win a war of sarcasm with her. 

The tree rolls his eyes and goes back to playing his game, while the raccoon nudges the tall blonde man next to him. “Hey. Quill.” The tall man turns around, eyes widening.  _ Cute _ , she thinks. He’s a bit awestruck.

“Hi… Hello. Uh—” he stammers.

“Oh, come on,” mutters the green woman to his side. She steps forward.

Veles plants a smile on her face. “My apologies. I don’t mean to interrupt… but Carol sent me to see how you all are doing. I’m Veles. I work for Mr. Stark.”

The green woman relaxes. She gestures at the ragtag group of aliens surrounding her. “I’m Gamora. This is Peter, Drax, Mantis, Groot, and Rocket.”

“ _ Also _ known as Starlord,” Peter interjects, and Veles thinks that he might be puffing his chest like a small, mating bird.

“What?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Uh, Me. I am. Starlord,” he says. His face is red.  _ Adorable _ . Gamora doesn’t bother to hide an eyeroll.

“Well hello,  _ Starlord, _ ” purrs Veles, stepping forward to shake his hand. He offers his; it’s sweaty and a bit warm.

She turns her attention to the greater group. “How are you all? I’m working to find space for you to stay, but it may take me a bit. As I’m sure you noticed, we have quite a few guests right now,” Veles apologizes. 

“I. Am. Groot.” deadpans the young tree.

“He says he’s bored. We’re all frickin’ bored. I’m five minutes away from shooting at something for fun,” complains Rocket. He tosses an orange in the air.

“Well, in lieu of shooting at our fruit as if they were clay pigeons,” says Veles, moving the fruit bowl away from Rocket, “why don’t I have FRIDAY lead you to our practice facilities?”

“Right this way,” intones FRIDAY, lighting up arrows near the doorway.

“Don’t get any ideas, now. Follow along with FRIDAY. She won’t let you into any room she doesn’t want you to be in,” Veles warns.

“Yeah, yeah,” growls Rocket, but she can tell he’s secretly excited to have something to do. Groot lumbers behind Rocket, pretending not to look intrigued.

Veles looks to Gamora. “Can I talk to you? About Thanos?”

Gamora clearly looks uncomfortable, but agrees. She nods at Peter, who relaxes and turns back to Mantis and Drax.

“Let’s take a walk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Upyr is one of the original Slavic words for Vampire.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a vague plan for this, but I'm not sure how long it will end up being. Thanks for reading!


End file.
